2015-02-24T14:17:11+00:00

Episode 178: Dressed To Express

February 24, 2015/Judy E Martin/10 Comments

Well today was the ‘Team Building’ day that I had mentioned in my previous post here. I had put on my ‘Minnie Mouse’ dress, grabbed my object that I was going to talk about (my knitted monkey), and managed to cadge a lift (due to broken down car) with two of my colleagues.

It is a beautiful, sunny day again today so the dress was not as inappropriate as I thought. We managed to get a parking space as well, but because of the time it was quite a long way off so we had a bit of a trek to get to the room on time. Of course, being as I am, I needed to get a coffee so the others went up and I joined the massive queue at the cafe.

This led to me bursting in a little late, but it wasn’t a problem luckily. Anyway we set some ground rules before we started one of which was ‘no eating’. Great, I had brought a couple of sandwiches and a satsuma to keep the hunger pangs at bay, but never mind! The session was really good as it happens. It was great to see some of the people in their own clothes outside of work! We all get on pretty well anyway, so it was quite good fun.

I was pleased that I was not the only dozy one amongst us, as one of our group barged in about an hour into the session having gone to the wrong hospital, in the wrong town (city actually). Bless her she got caught in the rush hour traffic but did eventually turn up.

At one part of the session we all had to talk individually about something, Just as thee boss was going to start, ‘Hey Jude’ blasted out from my handbag! Shit, I had forgotten to turn my phone on silent, which was very unusual as people normally moan that i never hear my phone!

Anyway, we eventually trotted back to the car (by now I was carrying my coat as it was so hot). I came home and decided that I would get changed as I felt a bit ‘trussed up’ (no, I have not been watching ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’) , I took my cardigan off and realised that one of the straps was missing off my dress, nowhere to be found. Gutted.

Pic of the whole dress (strap included)!

Episode 171: Ode To Nurses

February 19, 2015/Judy E Martin/18 Comments

This poem is for all the nurses, nursing assistants and carers. A typical day for us!

Your day starts very early

Before you are awake

There are patients who need washing

And lots of beds to make

The buzzers are all going

There really is no rest

Someone wants the toilet

“Sorry to be a pest!”

Some bloods need to be taken

Dressings to be changed

That patient’s going home soon

And no transport has been arranged!

“Someone’s had an accident

Go and change the bed”

Another one has had a fall

And now he’s banged his head

“Where’s the bloody doctor?”

The relatives want a word

Your smile becomes a grimace

As you’ve just skidded on a turd!

You quickly get it cleaned up

But it won’t come off your shoe

The time is going quickly

But there’s still so much to do!

You finally write your notes up

And hope you did ok

Then home to get some shut –eye

To face another day!

Episode 127: Breaking Out of The Comfort Zone

January 29, 2015/Judy E Martin/4 Comments

I have decided that now and again, it is good to shake things up a little and do things that are out of your comfort zone. It can be refreshing, as well as enlightening. Not that I originally had any choice in the matter when I had to do something totally out of my comfort zone today….

I always get to work half an hour early, and today when I walked in, I was told that my name was down to work on the ‘Winter Pressure Ward’. Oh, great, that’s going to be a treat. Off I trotted, only to walk in halfway through handover as they actually start at 7am and I got there at 7.10am. This put me on edge straight away I knew no-one else that was there, plus they were all looking at my sullen face as I dumped my coat and bag down and grabbed a handover sheet.

This ward is usually used for other things but due to the sheer numbers of patients coming into hospital during the winter, plus the pressure on hospitals to meet performance targets, for waiting times in Accident and Emergency, patients are sent here. There are 24 patients in total, of all ages, and all sorts of ailments.

It was a bit of a shaky start due to the fact that I didn’t know where any of the equipment was that I needed. i had to go backwards and forward a few times until I had everything, but it didn’t take that long.

I lost the sullen face, as I was there to work and look after the patients, so that is what I did. Some of the patients might have given me a bit of an odd look, when I asked them if they needed help with washing or feeding (I am so used to my elderly patients who mostly need help with everything) but other than that, things went pretty well really.

Today was a good lesson for me; not to be scared of the unknown. Have more confidence in myself that I can adapt to a different way of doing things, and despite my shyness, work with different people. It was a great day.

Episode 125: Dear Hospital Visitor……..

January 27, 2015/Judy E Martin/9 Comments

Today I thought I would do a slightly different type of post. It is something that has been on my mind of a while. so here goes……It is of course, just a little tongue-in-cheek, and purely my opinion!

Dear Hospital Visitor

We really appreciate the fact that you want to spend time with your loved one, and that is why we have made visiting hours so accessible for you; being between the hours of 2pm-8pm. We have even stated that if you wish to, you may come a little earlier in order to help your loved one to eat their lunch. We understand that in many cases, particularly with the elderly and frail patients, they will eat more when encouraged by someone who is close to them.

What we do ask, however, is that you remember that although the portions are quite large, the meals are just for the patient! We would like to try to build up their strength in order that they recover sooner and return to their normal lives, Eating well can help substantially with the healing process! You are welcome to bring in your own food, or even food for the patient if they desire something that we do not offer. Please try not to eat the patients’ meals as tasty as they may look. There is usually a canteen or shop available if you become peckish.

We enjoy our jobs as nurses/carers, and we pride ourselves in giving your relatives/friends the best care that we possibly can; treating them as if they are our own. So when you complain that your Mum/Nan has not had her hair brushed properly, or you berate us for not answering the buzzer within a nanosecond, please remember this: We treat EVERYBODY as if they were our own as I said, so that means that we have at least another 5 patients that may need our attention as well. We may have just seen your relative two minutes ago , and although yes of course, we will plump her pillows for her again, there is someone else bursting for the loo.

By the way, it does help if you could bring a few essentials in with you, next time you visit. Soap, slippers, dressing gown and a brush or comb would be so handy. We do have hospital nighties and some slipper socks available, plus the volunteers occasionally give us soap, toothbrushes and combs, but they do not last long, and we prefer it if we can, to save those for the patients that have no-one that visits them (sadly there are a few of those).

Oh yes, when you enter the ward, we do have plenty of alcohol gel available for you to use, Every patient also has them at the end of their beds. As I am sure you are aware,one of the biggest transmitters of germs is our hands, It takes seconds to squirt a bit of gel into your hands; just by doing this small thing, you might save your loved one from catching a nasty bug and having to stay in hospital longer.

Last of all. please don’t turn up mob-handed! There is hardly any room as it is around a patient’s bedside, and if there are 8 relatives at a time surrounding the bed, it does make doing our job a little harder, especially for those patients that also have drips and other paraphernalia all over the place. It is an accident waiting to happen. To be on the safe side, keep the number to two visitors. That way nobody will trip over you, or trample you!

Thank you for your kind co-operation!

Episode 119: Undercover Undercovers!!!

January 23, 2015/Judy E Martin/4 Comments

I’ve been doing a bit of spying today… Well, its not so much spying but more kind of undercover reporting! It all started yesterday……

I had to attend a meeting as the nurse representing my patient, with a couple of social workers plus the patient’s daughter in order to ascertain the best course of action for the patient’s discharge. We had to go through everything from the patient’s cognition, skin integrity and mobility, to nutrition and behaviour. Eleven categories in all, and the meeting lasted for about 2 hours (they can take longer)!

Anyway I had been warned in the morning that the daughter could be quite difficult and that she was also an MP (Member of Parliament). Great, everyone hates the good old NHS so no doubt she’ll put a complaint in and we’ll be slagged off AGAIN in the newspapers!

Well, I had the usual manic day and by the time the daughter had arrived for the meeting, I had hardly even looked at the patient’s notes. I escorted her to the meeting, and I noticed that she did seem pretty scary; very forthright and no-nonsense, but we joined the others and the meeting began.

The first section was behaviour. This is where I had to mention that her mother quite often pushed us away, shouted at us, and had in fact, tried to bite someone. This amused her greatly, and she said that her mum had always been a ‘stroppy old bugger’!

Anyway, we continued discussing each section, and myself and the Care Manager would put our perspective of the patient which very often differed from the other two (who had met the patient for 5 mins beforehand). This meant that we had to argue our case, stand firm and provide ‘evidence’ which we did!

Eventually a decision had to be made, and I was no longer needed so I went back to the ward with the daughter in tow as she was asked to come back in 15 minutes. On the way back, she asked me if I would have a word with the carer who was assigned to look after her mother. This carer was ‘live-in’ as the daughter lived in another county, and because she had promised her mother she would keep her at home, she paid this agency a lot of money for the carer to be available full-time.

Anyway the daughter had asked how often the carer visited her mother in hospital, and was told that she did come every day, but stayed only for an hour at most! This enraged the daughter so hence she asked me to have a ‘diplomatic’ meeting with her and the carer.

I agreed but dragged the Ward Sister in on it as well! I tactfully suggested that the carer might like me to help wash the patient as she was more used to her and maybe would not be so anxious and lash out. I also thought that my patient would benefit being fed her lunch by a familiar face (she had already been asked to this by the daughter, but had buggered off at those times)!

We agreed that she would come to help us from 10-5 every day starting today. The daughter was thrilled, and praised me up to the sister. The carer however, shot me daggers!

Fast forward to 10am. No carer. I had given my lady her breakfast of course but was waiting for the carer to come to help me wash her. 10.30, and in she breezes! She sullenly asked me where the washbowls etc were, and I showed her with a flourish – and left her to it! I had been summoned to break and there was another nurse in the bay if needed so off I trotted!

I came back not half an hour later and she had GONE! The daughter was on the phone asking me where she was, and did she wash her? I said that I gave her the bowl so I assumed she had washed her and that I didn’t know where she was. I told her to ring back after lunch about 1pm so I could give her more of an update!

Well just before 12.30 (lunchtime) the carer is back. I greeted her and she suddenly asked me,

“Do you wash legs?”

That’s a bit personal isn’t it, I thought! It took me a moment to twig that she meant did I wash patients’ legs.Still a bit weird, are legs self-cleaning and I never realised?!

I told her that yes I did wash patients’ legs as well as everything else, and then she informed me that she hadn’t washed my lady’s legs; When I enquired as to why not, she looked at me as if I were stupid and said,

“because she has dressings on both of them”.

Oh yes, the dressings that I took down two days before, as the ulcers had healed up but the skin was extremely dry and scaly and did not need to be bandaged.

I ‘diplomatically’ told her this, and mentioned that not only should they have been washed but creamed as well! That news pleased her no end. She huffed for a bit and played with her phone!

Lunch duly arrived, after about 10 minutes, and whilst I was feeding another patient I was checking that the carer was feeding her lady. She did manage to do this and got her to eat something which was good in itself. I asked her to write-up the food chart, but had to go through it with her as she thought I was joking!

Two minutes later, her coat was on…she was off to get her own lunch! Fair enough, it is hungry work sitting down playing with your phone, and glaring at people! I asked how long she would be, and was told she had to go into the town centre to get food (a bus journey away). I informed her that we have canteen and also a shop or cafe to get food. No of course that wasn’t what she wanted, It had to be KFC!

She disappeared for another hour or so. Meanwhile my new best buddy phoned me and asked me to give a lowdown on the carer’s movements. She was apoplectic when I relayed to her where the carer had gone for lunch, and resented the fact that it was most probably her money that had paid for the meal. (I think she was offended at the choice as much as the cost).

I did feel a bit bad doing my undercover bit but it does seem a pretty cushy number to me, this live-in carer arrangement! They get paid an absolute fortune, but it is a business and the patients are ‘clients’. How sad that they can’t even do the bare minimum for their ‘customers’ like give them a decent full body wash! (No offence intended to genuine and bloody hard-working carers).

Episode 95: Laughter Is The Best Medicine….

January 10, 2015/Judy E Martin/4 Comments

I love to laugh, and I feel that I have a good sense of humour. However, I do have an unfortunate tendency to burst out laughing at inopportune moments….

Being in nursing, there are plenty of opportunities for inappropriate laughing. During handover one morning whilst the night nurse was handing over a male patient, she mentioned that he had a severely ‘swollen scrotum.’ Now I am sure this poor patient did not find his condition at all funny, but I thought it was worth a bit of a snigger, being as childish as I am at times.

I shouldn’t have laughed because guess who had to go to theatres and ask them for a ‘scrotal sling?’ Yep, you guessed it. and off I trotted. Now theatres staff are not the friendliest for some reason. I remember once having to go there as my uniform had got some rather nasty brown marks on it (Someone had just been given prep for a colonoscopy, and didn’t quite make it to the loo…you get the picture). Anyway I asked if I could borrow some scrubs; I got a disdainful look when I showed them my lovely stains, which I took an exception to. So, I said to them, “It’s ok, it’s not my shit.” Scrubs were handed over and I hotfooted it out of there pronto!

Now, back to this sling. My initial request was greeted with a blank stare! When asked to elaborate, I got a bit tongue-tied as I had never seen one myself. Other nearby staff also decided to chime in with their thoughts on the matter, and after a lot of argy-bargy, one was found. I presented it to the Sister with a flourish, only to be told to go and fit it myself! No chance! I found the Charge Nurse and told him I needed to watch how he did it. Sorted!

One other episode during handover also made me laugh. Again it was to do with a male patient who had been making sexually inappropriate comments and overtures to the female nurses (bless him, he had to be at least 80, and even if the mind was willing…the body wasn’t able). Anyway this nurse that had handed over, was our previous temporary Ward Manager who had just retired but had come back to do the odd Agency shift. She was very well spoken and rather no-nonsense, and she said that when she had gone to see him he was totally fine with her; she then added,

“I mustn’t have been his type as he obviously didn’t fancy me!”

One of the doctors we have that comes to the ward is very glamorous and likes to wear high heels. (God knows how she walks about in those all day). She had come to see a very poorly patient, and I pointed out to her whereabouts this patient was. She walked into the bay, skidded on the shiny floor and went flat on her face! Now I didn’t actually see her fall, but I heard the racket of the stuff she knocked off the patient’s table, crashing to the floor, as she went down. Luckily she was unhurt, as I had nipped behind the nurse’s station to stifle my laughter.

I’ve lot count of the amount of times that a patients has broken wind (loudly) just as you stand them up to walk them to the loo or something. Sometimes they are oblivious to it, but if they heard it, then I usually joke that a bit of jet propulsion should speed up our journey, or some such thing.

Lastly, as well as loving to laugh, I also love words, so puns and spoonerisms are things that can always get me laughing. Our male charge nurse is constantly coming out with all kinds of things that are inappropriately funny which certainly brighten up my day; The latest one that I can remember, is when he did a great play on Whitton Tank, where a patient was being discharged to. (Just in case you didn’t get it, T**s and W**k)!

If like me, you love innuendo, double entendre and toilet humour, then nursing had more than it’s fair share of laughs!

Episode 85: Missing Molly….

December 27, 2014/Judy E Martin/7 Comments

I can’t believe how quickly Christmas flew by. This year, it was just a small affair with me, Mr Grump and Miss Hap. We had a wonderful day though which began at 5.30 with an excited little girl coming to wake me up. It continued with lots to eat, lots to drink (Mr Grump was well away) and some board games to argue about! (I won the LOGO game fair and square)!

Anyway, today it was back to work, and I was on a late shift which I very rarely do. I don’t like going in halfway through, as it puts me out of kilter. No need to have worried though, it was the usual busy madness but with hordes of relatives thrown into the mix! Normally when I have been off for a couple of days, I come back and everything is still the same as most of our patients are usually there for some while.

However, this time I only knew one of the patients as four had been discharged over Christmas and sadly, one lady had passed away only yesterday. I was particularly upset over this, as I did not expect it at all, In fact, I had told my daughter that she could come into the ward this evening when they picked me up and I would introduce her to ‘Molly’. She was a 94-year-old woman who was as bright as a button She had a fantastic memory, as I was there when she very first came onto the ward, and I told her my name as I introduced myself. She remembered it next morning plus all the other staff members’ names that she came into contact with.

She had a number of medical problems but was always bright and cheerful and loved a good chat. Her brain was sharp and she liked a laugh and joke. She knew little snippets about the nurses’ lives and would often ask us how our children were, or what decorations we had put up for Christmas; all sorts of things really ,just taking an interest in us. She would very often say,

“Give us a kiss” out of the blue, which we always did, or we gave her a hug, She was just a very warm and affectionate lady, who sadly had never had children of her own, due to a very bad miscarriage, as she told us. She did however, have nephews and nieces that came to visit her, who thought the world of her.

We do see many patients, and although we treat everybody the same, there are some that just stick in your mind for one reason or another. Sadly, due to the nature of our ward and the age of our patients, some of them pass away, which is always hard. However, for me, I am not only upset that Molly died yesterday, but also that I didn’t get to say goodbye to her. I had received a text from my daughter asking about meeting Molly which I saw at break time. I decided to tell her that Molly had ‘gone home’. I would like to think, that in some way she has gone home to be with her dear husband that had passed some years ago, and maybe even meet the child she had lost. I hope so.

Episode 34: Unexpected Praise….

November 4, 2014/Judy E Martin/2 Comments

Isn’t it strange that sometimes a compliment can make you feel really awful!…I am a person that likes to get things done, if I have got a job to do then i am going to do my utmost to get it done,, and also do it to the best of my ability…

However, life does it’s best to throw a spanner in the works whenever it can. Working with people is at best unpredictable and at worst chaotic, means that even with the best intentions in the world, things often end up going pear-shaped regardless of how hard you try.Today was one of those days….

I was working in my usual Bay looking after 6 ladies with a newly qualified nurse. Half of our patients were due to have various procedures which involved them leaving the ward, so we wanted to try to get them washed and ready first. Breakfast was late arriving, and drugs took a while, so were slightly late in starting washing the patients. Unfortunately my colleague had got embroiled in a complicated fight between relatives of one of our patients… It was all to do with a lot of money the patient had brought into hospital with her; it involved the Police, Adult Protection, a wife-beating husband (who looked the picture of innocence sitting in his wheelchair), and conniving relatives, who all turned up at the same time. I didn’t know who was who, but had been told to limit the visitors to two at a time. Great, I didn’t know who the bad guys were!

Still as my workmate had now gone off to try to untangle this mess,I was left to get on with looking after the rest of the patients…I ended up spending a good 4 hours of my shift on my own trying to cater to everything my patient’s needed, as well as carry out other tasks that had to be done as part of my job…

I was starting to get a bit frazzled, as other relatives had turned up (It was still nowhere near visiting hours) demanding to know things like,where the bag was that Aunty Mabel had brought in, and why weren’t they told their relative had a blood transfusion?(she hadn’t, Aunty Mabel told them she had for some reason). I did my best to answer their questions, but at the same time wanted to continue to try and wash the poor patients that were still waiting, and I was being distracted,

One of my ladies went off for her procedure in a wheelchair, and I was able to get on with helping the lady opposite to have her wash. As I appeared from behind the curtain, I was appalled to see a female patient from the next bay asleep in the freshly vacated bed opposite! I gently woke her up and escorted her back to her own bed, much to the amusement of the visitors!

I stuck my head in our handover room to get a quick swig of my cold coffee, and had a bit of a moan to some colleagues that were in there writing notes. However, as soon as I returned to my bay, I breezed in cheerfully and carried out with my duties. That set the tone for the rest of the shift really, getting further and further behind,and feeling frustrated because of it, Just before I finished, I had to carry out an unpleasant procedure on the patient with the relatives and the ‘Aunty Mabel.’The daughter had gone but her granddaughter waited outside whilst I did it. I explained to the patient what I was going to do and made her comfortable, and it went off without a hitch. As I came out from behind the curtain, her granddaughter said to me, ” you are such a cheerful person, I really wish all nurses were like you” …

I felt absolutely awful. I had been moaning to all and sundry every chance I got, because I had been left on my own so much, and was still washing patients after lunch, not to mention behind on all my other jobs, yet this relative had praised me for being so chirpy! Although I would never dream of being miserable in front of the patients, (they have got enough to worry about as it is) I did have a face like a smacked arse (a Miss Hap special) the rest of the time! I felt a right hypocrite!!

Episode 23: Which end first?!…..

October 21, 2014/Judy E Martin/2 Comments

Well today I had a lovely surprise when I arrived at work. The ward was closed as we had got several cases of Norovirus. …I had only been in on Saturday and there was no sign of anyone having it then, but it seems to be one of those illness that comes out of nowhere, causes a huge impact, then slinks off again!…

Norovirus is pretty unpleasant, unless of course you are rather partial to partaking in a bit of projectile vomiting, whilst trying to control the diarrhoea that is waiting to explode from the other end! Yes it is rather nasty, and I wished that I could just turn around and go back home as I knew that we were all going to be in for a busy day….

As I actually walked in through the doors, the unmistakable stench hit my nostrils (just as my sense of smell is returning after giving up the cigs) and there it stayed all day; there was no getting used to it (which normally happens after a while), or even getting away from it; every single bay had patients who was suffering with it, and there were two in mine).

The fact that the ward was closed, meant that no patients would be admitted or discharged, although visitors could still come if they wished to (or were crazy enough to). All staff were even more vigilant than usual and everyone was sporting a bright yellow pinny and gloves, regardless of what job role they had, or which patient they were seeing.

Having said that, the Manager, had previously arranged for a couple of workmen to come onto the ward today and put up some bits and pieces on the wall. They dutifully turned up and started working on their jobs, but I noticed they started looking a bit nervous as they saw people walking about all gowned up. Although these two did not have any direct patient contact I noticed them manically scrubbing and gelling their hands (which is no bad thing anyway), and they got out of our ward in record time!!

The rest of us ran around all day dishing out bedpans and commodes as fast as we could to keep up with demand, as our poor patients continued to suffer. Funnily enough, the large tin of luxury chocolate biscuits that had been given to the staff as a gift from a relative, were still in the handover room, largely untouched ; nobody seemed to fancy them (this is unheard of, where I work; normally, even if the nurses haven’t managed to get to the goodies, the doctors, physios etc would have polished them off)!! It seemed that most of us had lost our appetites!

Episode 16: Let’s Hear It For The Boys!

October 6, 2014/Judy E Martin/Leave a comment

Usually I like to get up early, but this morning when my phone alarm went off at 5.15am I wanted to pulverize it into little pieces, and sink back into a deep sleep. As I had very little sleep over the weekend, my head felt heavy, as I dragged myself out of bed to begin the day.

Unfortunately, I had to wake Mr Grump up as he was taking me to work today as Einstein was going to be fixing my car. His bulging eyes in a blanched, pale face told me that he still had his man flu, and just to confirm this, he let out one of his enormous sneezes. This is going to be a good day, I can tell……

As I entered the ward I realised I had forgotten to put on my belt with my uniform (Great, now I am going to be in the shit with the boss)! I might have mentioned before that I have no waist, so this bloody belt does nothing for me anyway, and I spend all day trying to re-arrange it so that it is somewhere around my middle. I could of course, wear the tunic and trousers but for some obscure reason, I always get an ugly-looking rash on my lower leg that itches like hell, besides the fact that I look even worse in trousers than I do in the dress! Anyway…it was no good fretting over the belt, I was not brave enough to ask Mr Grump to come all the way back with it, so I would just have to hope that it went unnoticed.

Handover arrives, and out of the six of us that have turned up (Still short-staffed as usual), four of us have had this awful lurgy, and as the night staff tried to hand over, they were drowned out by various, snorts, sniffs, coughs and splutters, that had still remained with us. The other two poor unaffected staff are subtly moving their chairs out a bit from the table we are all sat around, trying fruitlessly to avoid the germs that are no doubt whizzing around in the air, looking for someone new to latch onto.

I was allocated to my usual Bay with six ladies, but the difference was this time, I was on my own! Usually there are at least two of us to a Bay, but as there weren’t enough of us to go around, and my bay was relatively easy, as I had 2 patients that could get about to the toilet, and could wash themselves with only a little help, it was decided that I could manage by myself, and if necessary ask the nurse-in-charge to help out.

It started off ok, breakfasts eaten, drugs administered, washing equipment given to those that needed it etc, and I was just going to give some help to someone else that needed it, when I was distracted by a patient from another Bay who was desperately trying to escape from the ward by the exit, which is right next to my bay. The nurse looking after her was trying to coax her back away from the door, but she was not having it, and lashed out at the nurse with the small teddy that she constantly carries around with her.

I tried to help, but to no avail, she was pulling at the doors, and banging on the glass trying to get out (we have a code to get into our ward as the doors have to be locked to stop absconders, and to get out you have to press a button on the wall some way from the door). Meanwhile, people were trying to get through the doors so there was a lot of dancing around trying to stop her getting out, whilst letting people in, trying to avoid getting whacked by the teddy at the same time!

After a while the patient got annoyed with the doctor who was innocently reading some notes near to where she was standing, and once she had vented her spleen at him, she seemed to temporarily calm down and headed off back down the ward away from the door, swiftly followed by the harassed nurse, looking rather bedraggled as a few well-aimed blows had managed to dislodge some of her hair that was carefully tied back.

Normality resumed for a while and I got on with getting everyone washed,dressed, beds made, and helped them to sit out on their chairs, as it was by now nearly lunchtime I could hear some shouting coming towards me , and I knew that it was the same patient coming back to have another go at getting away, this time even more angry and determined than before, and she was sparing no-one that tried to stand in her way…

It was at this moment,, that a senior matron came onto the ward, with about 10 eager Italian nurses in tow, who had just been employed by out hospital, and were visiting various wards to get a feel for what work here is like…luckily, the patient’s husband (who had been called to try to calm her down),had turned up, and had whisked her off into an office, uttering soothing words, as he went. It didn’t last that long before she started shouting at him though, before she wore herself out, and went to her bed to sleep for a while.

I managed to get through the rest of my shift (I usually only work ‘short days’) uneventfully, and just as I was writing up the last of my notes, the ward phone rang and it was for me. Mr Grump had come to pick me up and was waiting outside ( I know he is ill but it was bang on finishing time, and there was no need to ring me on the ward phone, for goodness sake) Impatient to get going and get home where he could suffer in peace, I informed him that I had offered for him to give the ward clerk a lift home as we had an unexpected downpour; as she had a 30 minute walk, and would get soaked, I knew he wouldn’t mind dropping her off in the opposite direction to where we live, on a very busy road, with a huge school that had just finished for the day, culminating in a massive traffic jam!

Credit where it’s due, he put a smile on his face and even chatted a bit on the journey, and didn’t swear when a van pulled out of a side street and he had to jam on the brakes to avoid it!

It’s quite sweet really, that although we might take our partners for granted a bit, they do put up with a lot. That poor patient’s husband bore the brunt of her tongue lashing as well as a good few clouts from teddy, with patience and understanding, even though it really hurt him to see her like that… and although Mr Grump does love to have a moan about everything, he was good enough to take me to and from work although he didn’t feel like it at all.

Rhyme and No Reason!

Blogger, author and rhymester who likes to find the humour in life.

Tag: hospital

Episode 178: Dressed To Express

Episode 171: Ode To Nurses

Episode 127: Breaking Out of The Comfort Zone

Episode 125: Dear Hospital Visitor……..

Episode 119: Undercover Undercovers!!!

Episode 95: Laughter Is The Best Medicine….

Episode 85: Missing Molly….

Episode 34: Unexpected Praise….

Episode 23: Which end first?!…..

Episode 16: Let’s Hear It For The Boys!

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Judy E Martin

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Blogger, author and rhymester who likes to find the humour in life.

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